06-18-11 - We can bide time

06-18-11
Sweet wine, hay making, sunshine day breaking
We can wait till tomorrow
Car speed, road calling, bird freed, leaf falling
We can bide time
243 miles
Village City 5:30 am - Woke up, got out of bed… Packed up the car and headed out.
Tough getting out of town. They had Main street blocked off. It was the way I knew out of town. I had to go 8 blocks north to cross thee blocks to get past their road blocks. I had been looking for a Laundromat that I’d seen the night before…but gave up and too back to the freeway. It turns out that there was a closer way to the freeway to the south of the town, but I didn’t know that. I might have saved myself two miles of detour and a lot of agrivation had I turned south rather than north.
But I was back on the highway and heading east. I checked my Garmin “favorites” for places I’d selected to try to see based on the Fargo/Moorhead tourist book. First stop, near Buffalo!
Buffaloed in Buffalo - A winery called Red Trail was listed.
I got off the highway and drove maybe a quarter mile before the paved road ended and a dirt & gravel one took it’s place. Lots of farm land on either side. The Garman announced that my destination was 1.5 miles ahead. I could see more Wind Turbines off to my right as I approached.
I pull in and it’s a quaint litte farm house with vineyard fields surrounding it. A nice looking paved patio to the side. An a sign on the front door - “Closed”. What? It’s a Saturday and it’s 10 am? I check the tourist book. Sure enough it says Saturdays 1pm. Wow. Really? Would have been unheard of in most other wineries. But my error for not remembering the times. Oh, Well. Only a 3 mile total wasted drive.
I continue east to Castleton - The first thing I immediately like about this place and had been looking forward to was Cheap gas - I made a Ethanol/gas mixture at $2.98/3.46. 3 gallons of the 85% ethanol and about 8 gallons of regular gas. I filled my tank for just about $37. Best gas prices I’d gotten in a long time!
Castleton is a small community. Seems to be two main streets. Langer coming into town and Main St. crossing it. (Just after the railroad tracks.).
Just north of the tracks is a small town park. Here is a btrick paved circle with peoples names on the bricks and four benches. Each of the benches is dedicated to a man who came form of lived in Castleton. Each was a State of North Dakota Governor. 2 Republicans and 2 Democrats. From the first governor since Statehood to the 70’s. I struck me that a town this small would have had 4 Governors come from or retire there. Pretty amazing odds.
My net stop was the Maple River Winery/Distillery. Across the street from the benches are the two businesses. There are two businesses separating them. I meet jeff inside and start to talk about their wines. Rhubarb wines seem to be a specialty. I mention my recent Red ass Wine tasting in south Dakota and he mentions that they had just been in competition with that wine and one 1st place in the world for fruit wines
They began in the late ninties when the owner, Greg, had a wine party with some friends. Not a wine tasting party, mind you, a wine Making party Greg had a lot of crabapples in his back yard and didn‘t want to see them go to waste, so he made a crabapple wine. Apparently he had a knack for this and soon began doing this full time. They have perhaps 20 different fruit or flower based wines from Strawberry Rhubarb to chokeberry and Pumpkin, Lilac and Dandylion.
They also have other t\items made by local food makers like jellies, jams, fruit butters.bbq sauses and the one I bought - Chokeberry Honey!
They don’t grow their materials, but buy their vegatables, fruit and flowers from local growers within a 60 mile radius making their products very “green” and sustainable. I mentioned an apple and orange mixture wine and Jeff said no. not because the idea was silly, but because they can’t get oranges to grow in North Dakota. If they can’t get the raw materials from a grower in the state, it won’t make it into their wines.
They sell to a lot of restaurants and cooks because th flavors of their wines add a lot to flavoring and tenderizing meats and other foods, desserts, etc.They have found a unique niche that they can be proud of. Distinctly North Dakotan and proud of it. That doesn’t mean they won’t ship out of state!
I was then taken 3 door away to their Distillery - This company expansion is 1 year old, but 3 years in the making. It took two years to get the approvals and bonding to allow them to go into production. They are the states first and only legal distillery. They make Vodka (corn rather than potato based) - Cordials - very sweet and almost sherry like at times. Brandies - very strong! Some so strong it’s hard to taste the flavoring. I had expected that experience from the vodkas, yet those the flavors come through very well, the the brandies are “Kick ass”!
I really liked and was impressed but their operation and what they were doing there.
Basically a 4 person operation they are growing at an amazing rate and enjoy what they do. The economy has not effected them at all. (Which seems to be a common theme for most all of North Dakota. Their state bank protected thme from many of the financial follies other states fell into in the last decade of “go-go’ investing. So there are drawing people from other state even with the severe weather conditions because
“business, as they say, is a-boomin’” Colleges, oil fields and health fields seem to be hireing at better than national rates. And this little town with it’s small group of industrious entrepreneurs is thriving.
Fargo - first stop is to find more food for Mischa. And the Garmin lists the same location for the pet food store as for the Roger Maris Museum! It’s in a mall!) The day is already hot. I find a spot with a modicum of shade and wave down a security officer on a bike and ask him how close to this mall entrance are the two businesses. Ironically I’ve chosen the right protal. Both are withih steps of each other and just a few yards from the entrance. I take pictures of the Museum and then go to the pet shop. The name has change on the business from what the Garmin lists, but it’s the same company…sort of. I ask about the Nature’s Variety Instinct product. They don’t carry it, but a clerk give me an sddress just down the road that does carry it.
I go to the store and it is the right kind of pet shop. I buy a larg bag of the instinct as the size I got before was about $18 for 2kg and I get 6 kg for $30 - 3 times as much food for less then twice the price. I switch to Chicken from Duck& Turkey just to give her a little variety. I was down to just a hand full and about 3 chicken strips. I get a new package of Dogswell Happy Hips chicken strips.
The next stops are all “touristy explorations of Downtown Fargo. The Fargo Theater - Broadway - 2 old train Depots - Statue of Liberty Park which is on the southwest side of the Red River Bridge separating Fargo from Moorhead City - North Dakota from Minnesota.
On to my ultimate destination: Maury Wills Museum @ 1515 15th St. at the NDSU stadium.
I ask a father with his kids about parking and where the Museum is and he tells me “Maury is there!
Upstairs in the Stadium!
I park the car, rush across the street and get up to the stadium and ask “Where is Maury Wills? A lady informs me “He just went down those stairs, not three minutes ago.“ Missed him by 3 minutes. One of the great missed opportunities I will remember for a long time. He was on the field the night I saw my first live baseball game. 1960 - LA Memorial Coliseum. Dodgers vs. Cubs - Drysdale pitching. Roseboro starts as catcher is replaced in the 3rd by Norm Sherry. Wally Moon hit’s a “moon Shot”, Maury steals abase. Duke Snider gets thrown out at third trying to stretch a double to a triple sliding head…or belly first in to the bag. Doesn’t quite beat the tag. Ron Santo and Ernie Banks win my respect. Those were the days when I LOVED Baseball. Lived and breathed it. Knew every player and had (most) all of their portraits from 76 Union Stations. Thrilled at the limber tones and storied tales of Vin Sully’s voice. Even learned to tolerate Jerry Doggett! But those days are gone. And so was my chance to meet ome of my favorite Dodgers and thank him for a large part of the joy of my childhood..
To mollify myself for the loss I checked out the Viking ship in Moorhead City. (yawn.) I mean, the feat of building this by hand is nothing to yawn at…but it not like getting to meet Maury Wills.
Time to find camping for the night. It’s approaching 5 pm and I want to get a tent set up amd maybe try to head back to the NDSU stadium and see If I might have a 2nd chance at meeting him (He’s supposed to be back that night to be at a game and lead a parade just before the game. - Hope springs eternal, right?)
I check the local options. There is a place in West Fargo, but their answering machine has no details about camping.. I try the Fargo-Moorhead campground they’re too expensive $20/for a Tent! I find a camp in Fargo! Lindenberg campgrounds - run by the parks & rec dept. and it’s on “Roger Meris Drive”! and tent camping is only $14.50! Yeah! I get there .”Were all full up.” Even for a tent? “Sorry.!”
I call Buffalo State Park $18…plus a $5 car fee. That’s actually $23
It seems like the Fargo - Moorhead Campground is the cheapest option. It used to be a KOA (which may explain the high cost) I go there…it is not east to find. And the girl giving directions doesn’t help that much either. I find the way there. The old road was blocked off, the new one goes through an area mant to have tract homes or apartments…nothing is going in and it doesn’t seem to be “Currently under development”.
The road become a dirt& gravel affare…with potholes, not well maintained. Maybe that’s why they’re no longer affiliated with KOA. I’d expected better. I didn’t get it wifi only in the office. Tent camping is $20/night unless I want electric…that’s $5 more.
Camping - not in Fargo not in Moorhead City. Not for me.
I Drive toward Brainerd.
At the Offramp to 10 (to Brainerd) I see a sign for camping. Wagner Memorial Park near the town of Barrnesville. Tent camping is $10/night! I start Minnesota a night early..
5 days of stubble and no showers. Looking forward to getting clean tomorrow!
Mischa has lost over 8 pounds since beginning. I confirmed this at a vets scale in New Salem.
Her energy is there and she seems healthy. Maybe it’s the new food I’ve been giving her since Denver. No gain. Maybe she’s just shed fat?! I hope it’s not anything bad…I’ll keep monitoring her weight.
Hot all day. Sun all day. If the weather stays like this thru the coming northern states, I may risk going further north before Michigan and after in Pennsylvania and New York…even in Maine! Too early to tell.